A Sea of Uncertainty for Clippers

By LONNIE WHITE

June 29, 1999 12 AM PT

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Elgin Baylor, Jeff Weltman and Chris Ford looked tired as they sat together a week ago to discuss the Clippers’ plans for Wednesday’s NBA draft.

As the men responsible for the club’s latest rebuilding effort, the extra work they had put in since the end of the regular season, evaluating the talent available, had taken its toll.

Baylor, vice president of basketball operations, appeared the freshest, but not by much. For although this will be his 15th draft with the Clippers, Baylor has made sure he was well-informed about this year’s class.

For Weltman, in his fifth year as director of player personnel, and Ford, the team’s seventh coach since 1990, the pressure of getting the right player has led to plenty of late working nights.

With the team moving into the Staples Center in the fall and facing direct competition for fans from the Lakers and Kings in the same arena, the Clippers can no longer afford to be the running joke of Los Angeles. To win the hearts of those fans, they first must win on the court, and Baylor, Weltman and Ford know this as well as anyone.

With the fourth overall pick Wednesday, the Clippers are not drafting as high as they had hoped after finishing with the second-worst record in the league at 9-41. They remain confident, however, that they will be able to pick a franchise player.

The team has not hidden its desire to draft Los Angeles native Baron Davis and it would be no surprise if they ended up with the former UCLA point guard. But the Clippers have a bumpy draft-day history, which is why Baylor and company have spent so much time getting ready for this year’s.

“It would be better if we had one of the three [draft] places ahead of us but anything can happen,” said Ford, who has worked drafts with Boston and Milwaukee.

“All of a sudden, a player you didn’t expect to be there is there, changing the entire draft. You have to be ready. It can be a mystery. So you have to be ready to have answers.”

Last year, the Clippers had it pretty easy. Because Bill Fitch was already back in Houston, having been fired after the 1997-98 season, Baylor and Weltman worked without a coach’s input and picked Pacific center Michael Olowokandi over Arizona point guard Mike Bibby with the No. 1 overall pick.

“Last year’s draft was much different because we knew for certain who we’d get,” Baylor said. “This year, we don’t know what [the three teams picking ahead of them] will do.”

Chicago has the No. 1 pick, but the Bulls have been linked to more possible draft-day trades than they have championship rings. Vancouver has the second pick and the Grizzlies also have been the subject of trade rumors.

With the Bulls and Grizzlies up in the air, and Charlotte, which has the third pick, rumored to be in the market for a point guard, the Clippers understand that Davis and Maryland’s Steve Francis, the other top point guard in the draft, both could be gone by the time they select.

With each loss last season, Baylor, Weltman and Ford discussed potential draftees more and more.

“We’ve been keeping track of players all along,” said Weltman, beginning his 12th year with the Clippers. “All players, because you don’t know which are going to come out early. You hear things and you don’t know. You have to be prepared.”

By the time the Clippers completed their dismal season, plans to bring in potential players were almost done. The Clippers needed less than two weeks after playing their last game May 5 to bring in Utah point guard Andre Miller for a workout.

Miller started a busy span for the Clippers, who tried to work out as many top-rated players as possible before the league’s pre-draft camp in Chicago June 8-11.

“We want to see what type of character a player has,” Baylor said.

The Clippers worked out at least a dozen players getting ready for the draft and said that if a player had a poor workout it would not necessarily hurt the player.

“If a kid has a bad day shooting, it’s not going to kill him,” Ford said. “Not if he’s been shooting the ball well his entire career.”

The top players didn’t participate in the pre-draft camp at Chicago, so the Clippers resumed their workouts two weeks ago with Connecticut’s Richard Hamilton and Davis. They never did get a chance to work out Rhode Island’s Lamar Odom or Francis because both are considered top-three picks.

The Clippers have been involved in trade talks, but it’s unlikely they will move their top pick. With Maurice Taylor, expected to be offered a long-term contract extension, and Olowokandi as the team’s main players heading into the draft, the Clippers seem determined to stick to a rebuilding plan.

But they wouldn’t be the Clippers if there weren’t a pile of uncertainties. Among the players on last season’s roster are eight free agents.

Charles Smith, Brian Skinner, Taylor, Olowokandi and Troy Hudson are under contract. So are Pooh Richardson and Keith Closs, but they finished the season in the doghouse and neither is expected back. Eric Piatkowski and Tyrone Nesby are free agents the Clippers will try to re-sign, but Lorenzen Wright, Rodney Rogers, Lamond Murray and Darrick Martin are expected to look elsewhere for next season.

All of which makes the Clippers’ draft-day job no easier.

“You may like a guy, but when your job is on the line, it’s the hardest thing to do,” said Weltman, who helped sign free-agent surprises Nesby and Hudson last season. “Halfway through the season, it’ll be easy to look back and see [if the Clippers picked the right player]. . . . But that’s hindsight.”

Which will not be a problem if the Clippers draft a player who turns out to be more like Taylor, drafted 14th in 1997, than Bo Kimble, whom the Clippers drafted seventh overall in 1990 and has been out of the league for years.

NBA DRAFT FACTS

When: Wednesday, 4 p.m.

Where: MCI Center, Washington, D.C.

TV: TNT

****

FIRST ROUND

1. Chicago

2. Vancouver

3. Charlotte

4. Clippers

5. Toronto

6. Minnesota